Wednesday, November 28, 2012

This week our challenge is "a project with heart" and we invited Jim The Gentleman Crafter to join in the fun! You can check out the rest of our design team's creations here, as well as enter the challenge (and your chance to win a $50 voucher to Simon Says Stamp!) here. Now, before we get to the tutorial today, let me take a moment to thank Jim for joining us today, and introduce him to you as well.

Father to many dogs and ducks and a cat named Buzzy out on a farm in Granger, Texas. I love to use my hands and mind to create anything! There is nothing I love better than sitting down with a fresh roll of scor-tape and some chipboard! You never know what will happen!

I will step back now and get out of the way - as Jim takes you on a fantastic creative journey to create a steampunk-inspired masterpiece...

The Tricycle Heart

A fast and easy altered art heart with a steampunk feel. The heart box glides along on three pulley wheels. Once the Bead Chain is “unhitched”, the inside reveals a little mini book perfect for pictures and memorabilia.

Step 1:
Paint the Paper Mache heart box with the Pitch Black Paint Dabber on the outside. Allow to dry. Paint the inside of the heart box with the Red Pepper Paint Dabber on the inside. Allow to dry.

Step 2:
Using heavy cardstock make a heart template by tracing around the box top and bottom. (There will be about a 1/8-inch variance.) Next, cut template out and trace around this pattern onto a page of Tim Holtz Destinations Paper Stash. I used the patterned paper with the gears. Cut the two heart shapes out. Using the same piece of patterned paper cut out a strip that will cover the sides of the box. For the 4-1/4 heart box used, the measurement is 2-1/4 x 12. Distress edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink and adhere to respective places.

Note: For the outside section I folded the paper in half and started at the fold of the heart and the fold of the paper working downwards. The paper will not be long enough to cover the whole box and the next step will deal with this.

Step 3:
For the bottom of the heart box where the paper does not cover the tip of the heart, cut a piece of Grungepaper to 1-1/2 x 2-1/4. Round the edges with a scissor or a corner chomper. Next, apply Vintage Photo Distress Ink or Stain to the Grungepaper piece. You may choose to stud it with brads as I have done. Adhere the piece over the edges of the paper and onto the box.

Step 4:
Cut a strip of Grungepaper to 5/8 x 12-inches and ink or stain with Vintage Photo. Measure and pierce every 3/4-inch. Insert Tim Holtz Long Fastener Brads into the holes. Next, adhere the strip to the edge of heart box lid. Once again, the Grungepaper will not reach to cover the entire edge.

Cut another piece of Grungepaper to 5/8 x 3-inches. Ink with Black Soot Distress Ink. Use a scissor or corner chomper and chomp both ends rounding off the piece. Come a 1/2-inch in on each end and pierce once with a piercing tool and apply brads. Adhere over previously adhered edge piece and to box edge.

Step 5:
For the next step you can either use hot glue for speediness or Glossy Accents. First, adhere two Tim Holtz Idea-ology Pulley Wheels opposite each other, next to the Grungepaper piece. Last, adhere a third pulley wheel to the right side below the previous wheel. This will allow the piece to stand.

Step 6:
Wrap a piece of Tim Holtz Idea-ology Bead Chain around the box to get a measurement. With wire cutters, cut the length of chain needed. With a piercing tool, pierce through the backside center of the box. Next, insert a Tim Holtz Long Fastener Brad over the chain and into the hole folding the brad legs to the inside of the box. Note: Place a little dab of hot glue over the brad legs to secure. Touch up the paint with the Red Pepper Paint Dabber. Take one end of the Bead Chain and glue a Tim Holtz Hinge Clip to one end. This clip will act as a closure for the box by holding one of the beads in its grip.

Step 7:
Adhere two sizes of the Tim Holtz Regal Adornments wings together using VERY HOT hot glue. Start by placing a dab of hot glue on the smaller wing and applying it to the larger, pressing firmly for a secure bond. Do this for both the left and right wing pieces.

Next, bend a Tim Holtz File Tab, to a 90 degree or right angle. On one side cut off the rectangular end pieces so you have just the round part of the tab. Once again, apply a dab of hot glue to the rounded part and adhere to backside of wings near the edge. Repeat for other wing piece. Last, apply more hot glue to the other tab end and adhere to each side of the heart box.

Step 8:
Cut a piece of cork into a “V” shape, cutting at the smaller end. I used one of the larger stoppers from the Tim Holtz Corked Vials. Apply glue to bottom and adhere to the center top of the heart box. Next, adhere a Tim Holtz Knob to the top of the cork. Last, apply a dab of glue to the backside of the knob and adhere a small portion of the Tim Holtz Bead Chain around the knob securing again with glue on the backside.

Step 9:
To adorn the front of the box, I simply used a brad to hold together a Tim Holtz Timepiece, Sprocket Gears, and a Word Band and adhered to the top right corner.

Step 10:
Using the heart template I made for the outside bottom, I cut a 1/4 of an inch off around the edges forming a new 3-1/2 inch heart template. Next, I traced this 16 times onto various pages of the Tim Holtz Destination Paper Stash. I then cut these pieces out.

Next, use the same template and trace out 8 heart shapes onto chipboard and cut them out with Tim Holtz Tonic Scissors. Adhere the patterned paper shapes to the front and backsides of the chipboard pieces and distress with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. First, Punch two holes on the top left edge of two of the heart pieces together with a WeRMemoryKeepers Cropadile using the 1/8-inch punch. Apply Tim Holtz Jump Rings to the holes. Next, open up the heart pages and place one of the heart pieces behind the right page. Punch two holes on the top right side of the heart pieces and apply jump rings to those.

Repeat this process working from left to right making an accordion book for pictures or memorabilia. Last, adhere a Tim Holtz Label Pull to the front cover center for ease of pulling the little mini book out.

Monday, November 26, 2012

What is crafting, if not done with a bit of heart? When I create I do so from a place of creative happiness. I stay true to my own crafty heart, and I enjoy every minute. With this in mind, I came up with this week’s challenge. To craft a project with heart.

Whether you create a heartfelt card for someone dear to you, create a mixed media canvas with a heart focal point, use hearts as embellishments on your next layout, or art journal about what is dear to your heart we have a feeling this is going to be a lovely week of projects. I can’t wait to see what the design team has dreamed up - lets check out their creations from the heart starting with our very special guest!

Jim, aka the Gentleman Crafter is our guest this week, and he took the challenge to heart!Be sure to check back this Wednesday when Jim shares a tutorial and more photos of this amazing creation of his- the Tricycle Heart.

Jim says - A fast and easy altered art heart with a steampunk feel.The heart box glides along on three pulley wheels.Once the Bead Chain is “unhitched”, the inside reveals a little mini book perfect for pictures and memorabilia.

I can't wait to see more photos of this project as well as the tutorial for building your own. Tune in Wednesday! Now, let's check out what the design team did for this challenge-

When Sandra Mouwen saw this heart shaped coaster made of stone, her creative juices immediately started flowing.

I'm getting more and more into mixed media projects. And for those projects the sky is the limit, so why not use a heart shaped stone coaster on my canvas? One thing is a fact, I need some strong glue to hold it in place and let it dry for a while! The first thing I did, was put some Gesso on the canvas as a primer. For the background I used stencils (Letter Jumble and Mini Bricks) and stamps (Classics #6 and Bitty Grunge). I cut out those half doilies from the Classic Calico 2 and glued them to a piece of Jute string. And embellished it some more with some random items, like Corrugated Cardboard and some buttons.

Sarah was thinking it had been rather a long time since she last got her Tissue Tape out...

I wanted to make a hanging heart and was wondering how to create an interesting but randomly patterned background. I also thought it would be good to recycle some of the cardboard that is collecting under my craft table! I drew and cut out three hearts and then bound them in Tissue Tape. I wanted a more white washed effect so I gave it a coat of Gesso before adding a few faded, stamped flourishes. and edging my heart in Distress Ink. I wanted to keep the design simple so as not to hide the background and thought two Papillion butterflies, a few Tim words and a rusty key were just enough

Suzzdecided to use the hearts to create fun tags in a mini pocket book.

I had the sweetest set of tags with pockets Melissa Frances Bags & Tags which had me thinking how fun it would be to put heart tabs at the end of the tags. The thought of heart shaped tags had me searching for paper that fit and I found the perfect match with My Minds Eye Honey - The Sweetest Thing. I added images from the Stampendous Queen Bee to the pockets to float along with the bees on the hearts. A whimsical mini book with tags to pull out and explore.

Candy's vintage Christmas box affirms the sentiment that all hearts come home for Christmas and is filled with layers and detail.

Trace was excited to use up some of her embellishment stash for this Heart project.

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I have always loved hearts, especially on projects, so I knew that I would definitely use one or more for this challenge. My mixed media heart board uses so many different brads, pearls, gemstones and buttons from my stash, which by the way does not look any different even after this project! A few of my favorites are my Hero Arts Pearls and American Crafts Buttons. My favorite tool at the moment is my Epiphany punch dome maker, you can customize your embellishments with any patterned paper to match your project - LOVE that!

I've often thought to myself that the heart on Tim Holtz's "From the Heart" stamp set looks a little like an ivy leaf, so I used it as my starting point for this holiday wreath. I stamped the hearts onto Retro Grunge card stock, which has several sheets of various shades of distressed green, perfect for this project. Other products I used included Glue and Seal Gloss and Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany distress stains.

Ashli was inspired by this sweet photo of her little girl to scrapbook a page full of hearts.

When I was flipping through my photos and found this picture of my little girl with a heart-shaped mouth, I knew it would be perfect for a page full of hearts. After cutting out a large heart from some Basic Grey Soleil paper, I die cut some more hearts out of vellum using my Tim Holtz Mini Hearts. The softness of the layered vellum adds just the right touch. With all of my hearts layered up and journaling added, I finished things off with some Studio Calico veneers sprinkled around my title.

I (May) created a grungeboard ornament that is ready to decorate my tree - or be used as a gift topper.

My one regret about this project is that you can't all come over and see it in person as it is one of those projects that looks so much better in person than it does in a photo. It came out utterly amazing if I do say so myself- and the depth, the layers of color, and the texture that the UTEE I topped this with really add up to make this one of my all time favorite (not quite traditional) ornaments. I have someone very special in mind for this foil covered heart, and I hope that they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Tracy loves hearts and is often referred to as the heart queen due to her obsession with all things heart related, so this was the perfect challenge for her!

I encourage you to check out each of the design team member's blogs for more photos, supply lists, and more. Simply click on their name (above the photo of their project) to visit their blog. Also - don't forget to check back Wednesday for an amazing tutorial from our special guest Jim!

Now that we've shared the team creations - we're ready to see yours! As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. The challenge will close at 11:59pm Eastern time on Sunday, December 2and and the winner will be announced during the following week. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

Please claim your prize within the next two weeks by emailing Maywith your details. Now let's talk about the top 3 projects as chosen by the Stamp & Show design team. It would seem the number to be this week, was nine! Though I must say I was amazed by the creativity I saw with every entry, and all of the ways you creatively stamped this week. Fantastic stuff- and as always choosing the top 3 was not easy! This week the honors go to:

Be sure to visit their blogs and check out their amazing entries. So inspiring! Congratulations to each of you on a challenge well done! Please email May for the Top 3 Blinkie.

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge. It is always a joy to see what you create. I'd also like to say thank you again to Simon Says Stamp for their generosity - each week we give away a $50 gift voucher to the shop that you can use to buy all kinds of fabulous stamps, inks, and paper crafting supplies. Remember - you just need to enter the challenge each week to be entered into the drawing!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Whether you are getting a head start on making thank you cards for the upcoming holiday, hand crafting a gift in thanks, creating a scrapbook page about someone you love, or an art journal page about things you are thankful for - there are a lot of ways to give thanks this week. We challenge you to say thanks in some way with something you

The card I make most often is one of thanks, because I don't think you can ever say that enough, or show enough gratitude to people who have done kind things for you! Now I love my blueprint stamps (no surprise there!) and I thought paired with a simple thanks sentiment and some basic distress ink techniques and a bit of rock candy crackle, I could have a unique card ready to help me express my gratitude.

Candy's thoughts turned to giving thanks and giving little gifts when she created this practical yet inexpensive little note pad. It's a simple little expression of gratitude that can also be used as a favor at your Thanksgiving dinner table.

This week's challenge was the perfect opportunity for Ashli to reflect on all that she is thankful for.

I have a special scrapbook that I keep just for myself. It contains silly little layouts about my love of coffee, to more serious layouts about letting go. For this week's theme, I wanted to create a layout with stream of conscious journaling containing all that I am thankful for in my life. The warm colors and cozy feel of the Ready Set Go collection by Amy Tangerine were perfect for this theme. After layering up some strips of paper and stitching them down, some Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabets were added. With just a few other little embellishments dotted around, I was left with plenty of space for my journaling. I love having this documented in my album and think I might just have to make this an annual event!

Anna-Karin created a little suitcase filled with inked and stamped thank you cards to give as a gift.

Dan used a bold typographical design to add punch to his thank you card.

When I planned this card in my head, I was going to colour the lettering, but once I started I decided that it would have much more impact if the lettering was in stark black and white against the richly coloured background. I cut the lettering and the underlining shadow layer on my Cricut machine, then stamped the letters with images from the Going Somewhere, Dance Card and Steampunk sets. The background is from the The Countdown set and colour was courtesy of a range of Distress Stains.

Terry really loves hearts....and sure loves her friends, so she made a THANK YOU Soap Chain

I was sitting at my table and was thinking about a special friend of mine and then it hit me I knew that I wanted to make a Heartsy Soap Chain. It even smells so nice with the heart soaps on it. I played around with lots of hearts and the background is made with distress stains, distress inks and crackle as well to give it a nice crackled surface. For a bit of a romantic look I placed the lace and the pearls in between the hearts. I am not only loving hearts but the people who know me well all know that I am loving Wendy's butterflies, Just flutterby Butterfly and Just Fly, they are amazing, so I just had to place them onto the Soap Chain. They have different colors then I usually work with but they do fit right in don't you think? And last but not least I placed an important sentiment at the bottom of the chain and it says, thank you for being a great friend.

Sarah doesn't normally set fire to her stash, but it was the perfect frame for her big thanks!

Sometimes you just want to say Thank you in a very big way so I was looking for a bold design for my thank you card. I seem to be in a masculine mood again this week and reached for my Grungeboard letters, Blocks and Destinations Paper Stash and, um, yes, set it alight! I did go for a torn look at first, but it wasn't quite right so I took the plunge and tried a touch of real fire. I love the stripes on this paper and only needed a little stamping from the Mixed Media Dots and then finished I off with a fabulous Word Band.

I encourage you to check out each of the design team member's blogs for more photos, supply lists, and more. Simply click on their name (above the photo of their project) to visit their blog.

Now that we've shared the team creations - we're ready to see yours! As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. The challenge will close at 11:59pm Eastern time on Sunday, November 25th and the winner will be announced during the following week. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

Please claim your prize within the next two weeks by emailing Maywith your details. Now let's talk about the top 3 projects as chosen by the Stamp & Show design team. This was such a hard week- it was a really tight battle and let me tell you I wish this was a top 10, or 20 maybe! Ah, but it is always the top three, and this week the honors go to:

Be sure to visit their blogs and check out their amazing entries. So inspiring! Congratulations to each of you on a challenge well done! Please email May for the Top 3 Blinkie.

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge. It is always a joy to see what you create. I'd also like to say thank you again to Simon Says Stamp for their generosity - each week we give away a $50 gift voucher to the shop that you can use to buy all kinds of fabulous stamps, inks, and paper crafting supplies. Remember - you just need to enter the challenge each week to be entered into the drawing!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Is the challenge this week really to stamp without ink? The answer, is yes! For the purposes of this challenge I’m talking about traditional ink pads - so what could you stamp with? I like to use mist (put some on a slick surface, then tap the stamp through it and 'stamp'!), acrylic paint or paint dabbers, marker pens, distress markers, distress stains, perfect medium with perfect pearls, and also using embossing inks and powders.

Of course anything else you can think of is welcome too. I’m including embossing ink in here as not traditional ink pad, because if you’re like me you don’t emboss nearly enough. The key is to step outside those lovely normal ink pads we all know and love and mix it up! Before you get creating, here are more ideas from our design team!

Paint Dabbers were the obvious choice for Tracy this week, inspiring her to create an inky seasonal canvas.

I always find it a challenge to work on a larger scale and without using my trusty Distress Inks too, so this week was really thinking outside the box for me. My inky canvas has been coloured with Dylusions Ink Sprays Postbox Red, Cut Grass and Melted Chocolate, and has even been showered with a little rain to give me those random splatters. Tim's background stamp from the Season's Silhouettes stamp set came to my aid for the background stamping using Paint Dabbers Snow Cap and Pitch Black. I think this is destined to be my son's alternative Christmas card.

Candy tried something she's never done before; stamping with bleach, to create the background for her beautiful vintage pocket tag.

It was quite a challenge for me to stamp without ink, but a great opportunity for me to practice some techniques, like stamping with paint. I've tried it several times before, but now I've got the hang of it. Finally! It's all about how and how much paint you apply to the stamp. I had so much fun practicing in my art journal. I've stamped with Lettuce, Pool and Espresso Paint Dabbers. I also stamped the text stamp of the Papillon stamp set with VersaMark and Perfect Pearls Perfect Gold and Sour Apple. Love that technique! It gives such nice clean prints.

I choose to stamp with paint for this mixed media board. I find that using stamps that have larger solid areas like this Dylusions basic backgrounds stamp set from Ranger and my Claudine Hellmuth paints worked really well for me. Stamped images using paint would be as perfect as ink, but that is perrrfect for this board! My ragdoll kitten "Niko" was paper pieced using different patterned papers from Basic Grey 6X6 pad Konnichiwa and Authentique 6X6 Lively collection. LOVE these paper packs!

Ashli wanted to challenge herself this week, so out came the embossing powders!

Stamping with paint is one of my most favorite techniques. So, that wouldn't have been much of a challenge would it? I have a drawer full of lovely embossing powders. I never use them. Time to step outside my comfort zone and give that a go! After stamping on some dots with my Hero Arts Cling Dots Stamp, I used teal, gold and white embossing powders to accent my lovely Basic Grey Plumeria paper. Once my photo and embellishments were layered on, I wanted a little more sparkle. A scrap sheet of paper embossed with gold and cut into strips sure did do the trick!

Suzz loves to use sprays and mists and stamping with them can give a messy but lovely effect:

Since it won't take that long before Christmas is here Terry thought of making a Christmas Bag.

I had so much fun making this Christmas Bag. I was playing around with the Blue and White Acrylic paint and worked with the Silhouettes from Tim Holtz onto the painted background. The white embossing powder really gave the Snowflakes more effect and the 25 has some Crackle on top, now I think they pop out of the bag, don't you think? On top I placed a gem and to finish I wrapped a rope around it. You can make this cute bag quickly whenever you want something for a special person.

Dan stamped snowflakes in water and gesso while making this ornament for his Christmas tree.

Sarah wanted to create a male motivational card and found her inspiration in the Autumn mood and tones of October.

A male card can be difficult, especially a motivational one, but these Tattered Leaves were the perfect surround to the great sentiment. I wanted to add some extra detail and contrast to my layered card and thought that this foliage stamp from Tim's Floral Tattoo set would look great stamped in Gesso. I like using segments of stamps for a touch of extra wording and interest so I partially stamped the leaves. I was almost done but things felt a little bare, so call in the rustic string, eyelets and a Philosophy tag to finish things off.

I encourage you to check out each of the design team member's blogs for more photos, supply lists, and more. Simply click on their name (above the photo of their project) to visit their blog.

Now that we've shared the team creations - we're ready to see yours! As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. The challenge will close at 11:59pm Eastern time on Sunday, November 18th and the winner will be announced during the following week. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.